Focus: Into the breach

The men of the Black Watch face grave risks as they move north. But, reports Stephen Grey, they are up for it

The men of Bravo company were filling sandbags to protect their base, an abandoned poultry processing factory near Mahmudiya, when the first of 10 mortars exploded among them.

After a year’s service in Baghdad, these American soldiers had been promised a ticket home. But in May, after an upsurge in violence, they had been ordered to stay in Iraq and to fight in a new combat zone south of the capital. Now they were ripped apart.

“It is kind of hard to fathom that one mortar round can injure 17 people,” recalled Ricky Bolding, a 19-year-old from South Dakota, who was left with shrapnel in his feet, calf and back.

That was not all. In just a few days of attacks, more than 24 men of his unit, part of the US 1st Armored Division, were wounded. One was killed, another blinded.